Iran calls new US sanctions outrageous

By NASSER KARIMIAAP

Tuesday, 25 June 2019 7:45PM

Camera IconIranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his office are the targets of fresh US sanctions.

Iran has sharply criticised new US sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic's supreme leader and other top officials, saying the measures spell the "permanent closure" for diplomacy between the two nations. Iran's president described the White House as "afflicted by mental retardation."

President Hassan Rouhani went on to call the sanctions against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "outrageous and idiotic," especially as the 80-year-old Shi'Ite cleric has no plans to ever travel to the United States.

From Israel, Trump's national security adviser John Bolton said talks with the US were still possible and that the US is leaving an "open door" for Iran to walk through.

But the comments from Tehran clearly show its leaders think otherwise at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran over its nuclear program and Iran's downing of a US military surveillance drone last week.

"The fruitless sanctions on Iran's leadership and the chief of Iranian diplomacy mean the permanent closure of the road of diplomacy with the frustrated US administration," said Abbas Mousavi, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

The crisis gripping the Middle East is rooted in President Donald Trump's withdrawal of the US a year ago from Iran's 2015 nuclear deal and imposing crippling new sanctions on Tehran. Recently, Iran quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium to be on pace to break one of the deal's terms by Thursday while also threatening to raise enrichment closer to weapons-grade levels on July 7 - if Europe doesn't offer a new deal.

Citing unspecified Iranian threats, the US has sent an aircraft carrier to the Middle East and deployed additional troops alongside the tens of thousands already there. All this has raised fears that a miscalculation or further rise in tensions could push the US and Iran into an open conflict, 40 years after the Islamic Revolution.

Trump enacted the new sanctions on Monday against Khamenei and his associates.

The sanctions follow Iran's downing last week of a US surveillance drone, worth over $100 million, over the Strait of Hormuz, an attack that sharply escalated the crisis in the Persian Gulf. After the downing of the drone, Trump pulled back from the brink of retaliatory military strikes but continued his pressure campaign against Iran.

US officials also said they plan sanctions against Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, something that drew Rouhani's anger during his televised address on Tuesday.

"You sanction the foreign minister simultaneously with a request for talks," an exasperated Rouhani said and called the sanctions "outrageous and idiotic."

"The White House is afflicted by mental retardation and does not know what to do," Rouhani added.

There was no immediate reaction from Washington early on Tuesday to the remarks from Iran. The sharp comments are reminiscent of North Korea's verbal attacks on Trump before the dramatic change in course and the start of negotiations with Washington. In 2017, state media quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calling Trump "the mentally deranged US dotard."

However, in Iran's case, there are no signs Iranian leadership would welcome talks.